Karl Geiger was able to shake off the current hype in the ski jump circus and reached the podium at the first competition of the RAW Air. On Thursday (13.03.2025) he only had to give up the Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi and Jan Hörl from Austria. Three DSV jumpers made it in the top ten.
Kobayashi also took over the overall lead by victory on the first of only two stations of this year’s edition of the Norwegian counterpart to the four -hill tour. After two jumps on the large hill on the legendary wooden scolis, Geiger was missing 11.7 points for victory and 0.9 points to second place. Philipp Raimund became a strong fifth (-13.8 points), Andreas Wellinger rounded off a strong German team result as a seventh, even if two athletes from the German Ski Association (DSV) had missed the leap into the final.
New Suspenders at noon
A curiosity occurred in the shadow of the expanding manipulation scandal. The Norwegian Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal, Robin Pedersen and Robert Johansson took part in the first training session, but were then temporarily suspended by the World Association for new suspected moments. When jumping home at the “sanctuary”, stems only took part in the World Cup rather unknown athletes, of which Frederik Villumstad made it into the final. There he only came in 27th place. A sporty full disaster for the proud winter sports nation Norway.
Horngacher: Good, but “not perfect” competition
“We have quite a way of suffering behind us, but the World Cup had already shown that we restored the connection. The boys are good today, if not perfect, jumped. I am satisfied, it was a great competition”said national coach Stefan Horngacher on ZDF. Together with his team, he tries to focus on ski jumping in this turbulent time.
Geiger was also satisfied in the afternoon in view of the second podium this season: “It was really fun, I think it’s mega horn. I didn’t expect it either, so I am all the more pleased that it worked.”
Geiger and Wellinger with stable jumps
Karl Geiger, who went to the competition an hour earlier due to the victory in the qualification, sailed to 126 meters in the first round and thus temporarily to the top of the classification. But Ryoyu Kobayashi passed and also took over the overall virtual leadership. Andreas Wellinger pushed himself between the two shortly afterwards. Philipp Raimund showed the longest leap in the first round with 129.5 meters (together with Kobayashi) and thus also secured a place in the top ten at half -time.
Raimund was able to confirm his performance in the second round, even if he jumped shorter for half a meter. But he even improved by a place. The third last athlete was a violinist. With a slight tailwind, he sailed to 128 meters, but wiggled slightly when landing and had to line behind Hörl. Then Wellinger missed the jump, only came to 125 meters and even fell back by five positions. Kobayashi finally reached 127 meters for his third World Cup victory this winter and the overall lead in the RAW Air.
Eisenbichler misses the second round
As in the qualification, Pius Paschke had a hard time with the ski jump, did not get up properly and did not qualify for the second round after only 116 meters. Markus Eisenbichler had also not made it into the final on his farewell tour. The 33-year-old, who will end his career shortly, came to 111.5 meters and clearly missed the jump among the top 30.
“I had a hard time today. In qualification it was a security jump, now I wanted to put one on it. But it pulls me on the radius so much and it brakes. But I have healed and enjoy the last few weeks. I am looking forward to the upcoming stations”said six -time world champion on ZDF. He was glad that the decision has now been announced, but the emotions were great on the ski jump: “Ski jumping was and is my life! My heart burns for that. At some point you have to say: ‘It is enough.'”